Electricity is necessary for the operation of most major powered systems and subsystems of modern motor vehicles. The electricity is stored in a common electrical storage battery. As the current is drawn from the electrical storage battery, that battery must be recharged. In virtually all modern motor vehicles, the battery is recharged by an alternator driven by a belt powered by the vehicle's engine.
The many electrical circuits, or the cables that can be a part of those circuits, are typically protected by fuses. Some of these fuses may be located in remote fuse boxes. Other such fuses can be placed directly inside of, i.e., contained within, the wires or cables to be protected.
An example of this latter structure is the cable that is typically placed between the positive terminal of the storage battery and the alternator. When an overvoltage or overcurrent situation occurs, and as a result, the in-line fuse of this battery-to-alternator cable blows, the car must be immediately serviced. Because the fuse is contained entirely within the damaged cable, it is not accessible by the vehicle owner, and cannot be replaced. In fact, the inability to see or gain access to the fuse prevents the owner from visually establishing that the fuse has in fact blown. Thus, such service can normally be accomplished only by driving or towing the vehicle to a service or repair facility.
In some vehicles, the cable that is placed between the positive terminal of the battery and the alternator does not have a fuse that is contained within that cable. Rather, the fuse that protects this cable is connected to one end of that cable. That fuse is permanently secured to a bracket having two ends. The bracket is typically made of a rigid, electrically conductive material, such as copper or a copper alloy. The two end terminals of this bracket may be disposed directly opposite each other at a relative angle of 180°, or they may be offset relative to each other, at various acute or obtuse angles, depending upon the needs of the vehicle manufacturer, and the configurations and underhood spacing of the vehicles produced by that manufacturer. Many different bracket configurations, with various angles between their two end terminals, are necessary to satisfy the various needs of these manufacturers. Moreover, as a result of the permanent securement of the fuse to this bracket, replacement of a blown fuse requires replacement of the entire fuse/bracket assembly. The permanent securement of the fuse to the bracket prevents the replacement of the fuse alone.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved fuse holder that will solve these problems with the prior art fuse holders, and with the prior art bracket/fuse assemblies.